As much as I can appreciate that finances should be private to some extent, and that individuals have a right to be considered separately from their partners, I just can't imagine keeping a secret credit card or putting lots of effort into hiding big purchases from my partner on a regular basis. I certainly wouldn't dream of hiding £100,000 from him!

Starting university is stressful. Although it's a fair while since I went through the process, the daunting task isn't lost on me. The thorniest issues then remain constant now; for some it was the application process, for others achieving their grade expectations, and understandably for many of us, it was the cost.

If we could turn the page, start afresh and work together; commit ourselves to financial and enterprise education across the curriculum at all stages and do whatever it takes to really engage young people, perhaps will we see a new generation free from this crippling fear of debt and unemployment. Surely we have to try?

Although the public will revel in blaming the player's demise on a lavish lifestyle few can afford, many downfalls are a result of impressionable young athletes taking advice from supposedly reputable advisors who in reality have the ethics of a common criminal.

In the last year of my twenties, the recession hit at the same time as I took a marketing position in the financial services sector. It made me realise that living in financial airy fairy land is not conducive to a healthy, happy life. My thirties have been spent trying to undo the damage I did the decade before.

Rewards based crowdfunding offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to have their idea validated by the crowd, obviously if there isn't much support shown the likelihood is you have a dud idea and you can move on to your next one, sparing any blushes.

The Sendai Declaration may not be what people hoped for. It was, however, an agreement made by UN member states which, despite cynicism, means something. I believe the Sendai Declaration created a foundation and a meaningful if incomplete agreement is more of a foundation than a rejected solution.

We must build on our incredible financial, FinTech and technology success. We must help ideas incubate from thought to reality, then retain startups when they are a success using our incredible financial services resource.

This makes the coming weeks potentially rather dangerous for investors and traders as geopolitical uncertainty increases. Already we have been seeing an uptick in volatility, not just in sterling, but across FX markets as a whole and if the result from the General Election continues to look like there is going to be no clear winner then things could become even more volatile.

Peer-to-peer lending is now ten years old, with the first ever peer-to-peer finance platform Zopa, celebrating a decade in business this month. That decade has seen a dramatic change in the banking landscape.

Within the Coral Reef, a number of pioneers are already spearheading the growth of platform-driven ecosystems, as seen with cloud technology, indicating the way to a new model of large-scale, cross-boundary innovation.